What Happens to the Kindness We Give Away

Sometimes a few words spoken to a lonely child travel farther than anyone could possibly imagine.

We rarely get to know what happens to the kindness we give away.

Most of the time, we never know where it goes.

Once, a little boy growing up in Pennsylvania didn’t particularly fit in.

He was frequently sick and painfully shy.

Because illness kept him inactive, other children called him names. The one that cut the deepest was “Fat Freddy.”

He remembered being chased by other boys and hiding in neighbors’ houses to escape.

Adults told him not to let the other kids know they were hurting him.

But they were.

He was lonely.

So lonely that he would sit by himself at the piano and put his feelings into the keys.

Years later, he said playing the piano allowed him to “cry through my fingers” and “laugh through my fingers.”

But one person made him feel differently.

His grandfather.

The two spent time together at his grandfather’s farm, walking, talking and fishing.

And whenever it was time for the boy to leave, his grandfather made sure he understood something.

“You’ve made this day a special day.”

Then he would remind him:

“Just your being yourself is what matters to me.”

The boy never forgot it.

Years passed.

He grew up and found his way into television, eventually helping build a show that struggled for funding in its early years.

But within that show, he created the kind of world he had needed during those lonely years.

A place where everyone was accepted.

Where fears weren’t dismissed.

Where feelings mattered.

He filled that world with characters.

One was a cheerful deliveryman who would arrive carrying packages and announce:

“Speedy Delivery!”

His name was Mr. McFeely.

That name wasn’t chosen at random.

McFeely was his grandfather’s last name.

The same grandfather who had taken a lonely, bullied little boy fishing.

Who had listened to him.

Who had made him feel important.

Who had told him that simply being himself was enough.

And that little boy?

His name was Fred Rogers.

The world he created became Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

“I like you just the way you are.”

We rarely get to know what happens to the kindness we give away.

In this case, it looked like a little boy struggling to find his place in his neighborhood and a grandfather who truly saw him, loved him and made sure he knew it.

A grandfather’s kindness helped shape a boy who would spend the rest of his life building the kind of neighborhood he had needed as a child.

For more than 30 years, Mr. Rogers spoke to millions of children, sharing a version of the same message his grandfather had given him years earlier.

Sometimes kindness doesn’t end with the person we give it to.

Sometimes it echoes through an entire neighborhood.